On January 3 this web log asked, “What’s in the Communications Plan?” at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Now, we know.
A draft version of what appears to be the new “Communications Plan for the Pacific Tsunami Warning System (2005 edition)” can be downloaded as a PDF on the web site for a meeting now under way in Paris. This plan was made available to officials attending the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) meeting on creating tsunami warning and mitigation systems for the Indian Ocean (see text of e-mail to attendees, below).
The draft notes it was reviewed just four days ago by Francois Schindele of France, chairman of the International Tsunami Information Center in Honolulu, and Dr. Laura Kong, its director. It would seem to be the definitive word on how to get the word out about a tsunami.
So what's the plan for contacting the news media to issue urgent warnings?
The plan doesn’t say.
With two months hindsight on how the media were not contacted on December 26 and speculation that doing so might have saved tens of thousands of lives in the Indian Ocean region, this new draft ignores media notification with one minor exception.
The only reference in the entire plan to news media notification is within the context of what a “dissemination agency” should do – i.e., what the agencies of member governments should do when they receive tsunami watch or warning information from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:
“Tsunami Watch and Warning information may be passed (depending on the time and facilities available) to the coastal population by any or all of the following methods: radio, television, sirens, bells, whistles, warning flags, mobile loud speakers, and personal contact.”
That’s all there is on using the media to communicate life-saving messages to populations in danger; the plan leaves that function up to “disseminating agencies” of member governments. Nowhere does it suggest or outline procedures for the Warning Center itself to contact the media and thereby shave previous minutes off the notification time.
It looks as if it's going to be a “long, hard slog” to get international tsunami experts to agree that immediate telephonic contact with the major international news media has a crucial place in the crisis communications plan.
Message to IOC Attendees in Paris
The following e-mail was sent on March 3 to more than 140 IOC officials who are included on the IOC Action Addresses list available at the web page linked above:
Ladies and Gentlemen, many of you are attending the International Coordination Meeting for the Development of Tsunami Warning and Mitigation Systems for the Indian Ocean in Paris. The rest of you share the goal of mitigating the loss of life in future tsunamis through the creation of effective warning systems.
Much of your deliberation naturally will involve high-tech solutions, but I urge you to not lose sight of the importance of low-tech media notification in sending useable warnings to populations at risk. As a private citizen living in Hawaii, I have maintained a web log since January 2 on this critical -- but overlooked — communications channel.
Based on media reports, it would appear nearly all tsunami experts are focused on technology-oriented solutions to the warning problem. Certainly they must be implemented, but you are encouraged also to consider how effective a simple yet timely telephone call can be when made to major news organizations, such as the Associated Press, Reuters and CNN. Thorough coordination with the media is necessary, of course.
I hope that even a small percentage of the people who receive this e-mail will take time to read some of my web log (below) and then include low-tech media notification in your plans. A great number of lives might have been saved in the Indian Ocean region if a warning had been disseminated in this fashion.
Sincerely,
Doug Carlson
Honolulu, HI
March 6, 2005
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